Grit Lab Report

Hi Leigha,

Welcome to your personalized Grit Lab Report!

We will go week by week, reviewing everything you have told us through Poll Everywhere.

We hope this will help you reflect on what you have learned and experienced during Grit Lab.

Important note!

Sometimes, you may not have been able to respond to all polls.

If the data for one of the polls is missing, the automatic report will display NA, or ““.

Okay, let’s get started!

The first half of Grit Lab delves deep intp the passion facet of Grit.

We like to call it Choose Easy, because we think gritty people pursue what they enjoy.

Putting it graphically, gritty people tend to pursue the intersection of these four circles.

The first time we met, you told us where you were on the grit rubric.

Regarding passion you picked Stage 2: I have 2 or 3 emerging interests but am unsure how to figure out which one to pursue .

Regarding perseverance you picked .

As you know, grit grows, so don’t worry if you are not yet where you’d like to be in your grit journey.

Hopefully, this class will help you become grittier each day.

In week 2, we looked at your interests.

Interest is an emotion, and it is the opposite of boredom.

Your interests are the activities or subjects that spontaneously grab your attention.

Trying things out and seeing how you feel is the best way to refine your interests.

In week 3, we studied values, your beliefs about what is important.

You said your top three values were hedonism, achievement, and stimulation.

You wrote a “This I Believe” essay, and here’s where you located it on Schwartz’s value taxonomy.

When we talked about strengths in week 4, you said your personality strength was extraversion.

You said your top three talents were social, spiritual, and analytic.

We then talked about goal hierarchies.

You said you had a general intuition (but nothing specific yet) about your top-level goal.

We discussed self-concordance, or how much a goal aligns to your deeply held values and beliefs.

A goal you said you will be pursuing for the next six months is to get a job .

Here is how self-concordant that goal was:

Don’t worry if your self-concordance for that particular goal is low.

It might mean that you need to reframe that goal in a way that makes it more relevant to your deep self, or change it!

Remember that self-concordance is goal specific, so other goals might be more self-concordant.

We then transitioned to the second part of Grit Lab:

Work Smart

In week 6, we looked at goal setting and planning.

You WOOPed!

For your Wish, what you wanted to accomplish, you said Wear sunscreen everyday .

For your Outcome, what would happen if your wish came true, you said Healthy skin .

For you Obstacle, what it is within you that stands in your way, you said Rushing to get ready .

For your Plan, you created this when-then plan to achieve your goal: When I wake up I will put on sunscreen .

Whether you changed your WOOP or stuck to that one, here’s where it landed between being a total fail, and going exactly according to plan.

And here’s how much you learned

These goals are hard, and despite our best efforts, our plans can fail.

The important thing is that you learn something along the way!

In week 7, we talked about deliberate practice.

You shared you’ve done daily practice in SATs .

We learned that deliberate practice requires a challenging, hyperspecific goal, maximum concentration, instant feedback, and is often done alone.

In week 8, we discussed feedback.

Even though feedback can be hard to take, it is often the key to improve. So if you want to improve, seek it actively!

You said you felt Offended when receiving critical feedback, and Offended when receiving positive feedback.

We then turned to learning about stress.

In week 9, you reported feeling a moderate amount of stress in your life right now, the primary source of it being job .

We also talked about adversity and failure.

Although related, adversity and failure are different:

Adversity happens to us, whereas failure is something for which we are generally more responsible.

However, how we interpret stress and failure matters…

Interestingly, research has found that people who believe that stress can facilitate learning and growth experience enhanced performance, well-being, and health.

And failure—not achieving a particular goal—can be interpreted as “I’m learning!” and lead you to look for the lesson in that experience.

We closed the Work Smart section of the class by talking about habits.

Throughout the semester, you practice habit building using your Build-A-Habit Guide book.

You describe the habit you chose as Health .

Whether you were successful in habit building or not, this is how much you learned.

Finally, what good is grit if we do not dream for others?

So, we transitioned to Paying it Forward.

In week 10, we looked at mentors: role models that take an active role in your growth.

Hopefully, your mentor was authoritative, being both supportive and demanding.

Here’s how you described them:

You also wrote a gratitude letter to Parent .

In one word, you said it made you feel Guilty .

One way of paying it forward is having a prosocial, beyond-the-self purpose. Here’s how you responded to items assessing that.

… and so quickly we arrived at the end of the semester.

Here’s how your mood varied over these weeks.

Do you notice any patterns? Is there anything that correlates with your mood?

Here you can scroll through all the quotes you wrote to summarize each class.

Grit has a domain
To summarize people's words verbatim
The idea of plan A B and C really taught me a lot about myself
Don't quit on a bad day.
Concept of WOOP
Talking about david beckhams experience
Be nice to young people when giving feedback
Prices smodel was very helpful
That willpower and just do it is a scam sometimes
Wise parenting
Women are better than men at following good deeds from others.

In the final class, we looked back to everything we’ve learned together and to how our passion and perseverance evolved during this class.

Here are the comments from your Grit Lab Teammates:

Kevin Wang
Leigha somehow simultaneously manages to be both extremely relaxed and very passionate at the same time, fitting into all conversations and group settings with complete ease and comfort. Leigha is extremely attentive and understanding in all of her interactions with people, paying full attention to each word and always responding with thoughtful and interesting remarks that reflect her level of comprehension. Furthermore, Leigha is always a super fun and engaged person – hearing about her vacations to tropical islands or her adventures in DJing in various clubs always brought a smile to everyone’s face, and her joy and passion when speaking about such things were both evident and infectious. I deeply appreciated the many conversations that I was able to have with Leigha, where she was eternally a chill and relaxed person who facilitated smooth conversation and easy laughs. I am grateful for the time that I was able to spend with Leigha working and talking about classwork together, and I have no doubt that she’ll do fantastic things in any of her future job pathways, whether as a consultant, a DJ, or even as a movie star! Similarly, getting to see her Discovery Project presentation on being a DJ, and hearing about her bits of progress week over week, was amazing to see. I loved seeing the Spotify playlist presentation template – it fit the presentation theme and content perfectly. Likewise, listening to her talk about how she was able to join things like a DJing club or actually try it out in actual clubs was extremely inspiring – though it started out as a passing and vague interest, the fact that it was able to bloom into something that resulted in tangible opportunities to try it out in actual clubs, along with how it led to something as big as actually joining school organizations, was super amazing to see. I loved the presentation, and I know that, even if just as a hobby, Leigha can do amazing things with DJing in the future!
Phoebe Hoffman
Leigha, you have been a lot of fun to engage with over the course of the semester. I really appreciate the life mottos/lessons that you have shared with us. Your positivity is contagious and you lead every conversation with an inviting smile. I am confident that you will continue to spread positivity to others and be successful in whatever field you end up in! Your presentation was great. I really loved your slides - they went really well with the content of your project, and added great visuals. It was awesome to hear that you got involved in a community of other DJs at Penn and now experience music in a different way! I hope to hear a DJ set of yours.
Amalya Knapp
Leigha brings a vibrant energy to our team that is truly contagious. One aspect of her personality that I greatly appreciate is her openness and willingness to share. Leigha's genuine love for life is evident in the way she approaches both academic and personal experiences. It's not just about going through the motions for her; it's about extracting the maximum joy and knowledge from every opportunity. Whether she's discussing a challenging project or sharing anecdotes from her latest adventure, Leigha's enthusiasm is not only infectious but also fosters a positive and collaborative team atmosphere. Her zest for life is a constant reminder to find joy in the journey, and I'm grateful for the inspiration she brings to our team. Moreover, Leigha's exceptional listening skills have made a significant impact on our group dynamics. In our team discussions, she ensures that everyone's voice is heard, creating an inclusive and supportive environment. It's a rare quality to be both expressive and receptive, and Leigha effortlessly balances both. Her ability to make each team member feel valued and acknowledged has been crucial to our group’s success this semester. Regarding Leigha's Discovery project presentation on learning to be a DJ, I was truly impressed to witness a senior embrace an entirely new hobby and become actively involved in a new club at Penn. Leigha's journey exemplifies that it's never too late to discover a passion and dive into uncharted territories. Her presentation was not just about the technicalities of being a DJ; it was a testament to the power of embracing new experiences. The way she applied her newfound skills during a trip abroad with friends showcased the real-world applicability of her discovery. Leigha's project taught me the importance of using grit in a fun and creative way, emphasizing that personal growth and connection with others can be achieved through pursuing unconventional paths. It was a pleasure to be part of Leigha's group this semester!

We hope you have emerged from Grit Lab a little grittier than you started.

Do you want to see how your grit rubric changed?

Drumroll please…

Don’t worry if the rubric doesn’t yet reflect growth. It is only a coarse measure that cannot replace your own self-reflection.

In any case, grit is not built in a day…

…remember that progress is never smooth…

…so stay passionate and persevering in the lifelong quest of choosing easy, working smart, and paying it forward.

With grit and gratitude,

Angela and the Grit Lab team.